The invention relates to a method for producing a printed product for which the complete content of the printed product may be printed sequentially in series along a paper web. The printed paper web may be subsequently processed further to form a printed product. The paper web may be printed on one side or both sides. The width of the paper web may be based on at least a first format extent with respect to the finished printed product.
Such a method for the processing of individual sheets is disclosed in the prior art. With this method, the printed paper web is cut longitudinally into web sections and is then cut crosswise into individual sheets, corresponding to the predetermined format for the printed product. Each web section contains sequentially in series all pages of a printed product. The individual pages belonging to a printed product are stacked one above the other and are then supplied, for example, to a binding process. However, with this method the system is highly susceptible to malfunctions and failures connected to the mechanical elasticity of the paper. Furthermore, in connection with the transport and stacking of the individual sheets, initial susceptibility to malfunctions and failures increases with this method when the web speed increases because of the properties of the paper, meaning it affects the precise alignment of the individual sheets in the stack. If the individual sheets in a stack are not aligned correctly 100 percent, that is if the individual sheets in the stack are not aligned one above the other, it may be very difficult to achieve this alignment later on, thereby resulting in a high amount of waste paper. Furthermore, if only one sheet in the stack is not aligned on top of another, this may be sufficient reason for ejecting the whole stack.
Different attempts have been made to improve the transport and stacking operations with the aid of auxiliary measures to correct this problem. However, these measures have only made the system more complicated. Attempts were even made in part to reduce the web speed for the printed paper, to minimize the crosswise forces acting upon the printed product during the transport and stacking. However, web speed reduction did not have the expected results apart from causing a reduction in the production.